Wing Island takes place on a chain of islands located in the world of man-sized, bipedal birds. You play as Sparrow Wing Jr., a young pilot who's decided to follow in his father's footsteps and serve as a professional jack of all trades of sorts. Sparrow and his friends, Puffin Chirp, Crane Splendid, Swan Sweet, Hawk Old, and Owl Fatman take on jobs of all forms that require their expert abilities in a plane. Your plane can be controlled exclusively with the Wii Remote. You ascend and descend by tilting the controller in the corresponding direction. To turn, you rotate the remote left or right. The speed of your turning depends on how fast you rotate the controller. Acceleration and deceleration are handled with up and down on the d-pad. You can also perform some acrobatic moves. Thrusting the controller forward gives your plane a burst of acceleration. Pulling the controller towards yourself results in a quick deceleration. Shake the Wii Remote left or right, and your plane does a quick 180 turn. Wing Island makes use of this flight system for a mission-based story mode where you take on missions as Sparrow and his friends. The game offers a variety of mission objectives set across separate islands. You start off each island with a set of selectable missions, with new ones appearing once you've cleared these.